The Mormons' genealogical gift

By John Nicol

and additional related articles from Maclean's listed at the end of this article.

The Church has just completed filming the vital records of Newfoundland, Canada. In Canada, it is filming Crown land records in British Columbia, vital records and wills in Prince Edward Island, and has ongoing projects in Ontario and Quebec. Overall, the Church has 300 microfilm-producing cameras operating in 47 countries. The granite climate-controlled vaults carved into the Rocky Mountains of Utah holds the world's most complete master list of dates of births, deaths, and marriages. In 1894, the church began this quest with its ultimate objective, a grand link of the human chain.

The Church's two billion names, mostly from European countries but with a steady influx of data from Asia and Africa, are available free of charge at the Family History Center, which is part of a huge downtown complex in Salt Lake City. The library contains two floors of Canada-U.S. material and separate floors for international data. An average of 2,400 visitors visit the world's largest genealogical library each day. The information can also be ordered on microfilm from any of the church's 3,411 Family History Centers around the world.

Since May, there have also been 400 million names made available free of charge on www.FamilySearch.org, the Church's genealogy Web site, with another 200 million to be added this fall. The Web page also has 7,000 links to other sites.

The generosity of the Church has astounded the genealogical world. Elder Todd Christofferson, executive director of the family history department, allows that while it's "un-American" to offer such a service for free, it is part of the church's mission to have its 11 million members identify their ancestors and baptize them, which sometimes can be an affront to relatives of a different belief.

In Canada, genealogy has become almost a sacred mission for tens of thousands along with millions of other people worldwide. The Canadian obsession began with its Centennial in 1967 and then Alex Haley's 1976 book, Roots. This latest phenomenon springs from the Internet. With only minimal coaching, people are flocking to Web sites such as the Mormons' new www.FamilySearch.org or www.RootsWeb.com to transport themselves back in time.

Genealogy has become second most popular subject on the World Wide Web, next to pornography, with two million sites and counting. When the Church set up their free Internet site in May, it received a staggering 30 million electronic hits its first day of operation.

For many, of course, genealogy is purely a hobby, a way for the retired to pass their leisure years or to prepare for "roots discovery" vacations in the old country. Surprisingly however, the most dedicated researchers are 35 to 44 years old. Research can become an all-consuming passion for the involved, in a quest to find out who they are and where they came from, perhaps induced by a Y2K reflection or a chance to experience the ultimate time machine voyage-back.

However, for a significant number, this quest is a literal matter of life and death for the living. Biotechnicians can use the world's vital statistics to discover genetic connections underpinning heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's and other such maladies, often making it vital to know what is in a patient's family history before radical preventive treatments and surgeries are undertaken.

For some, it is a mater of lively hood, especially for native Canadian women who were disfranchised by their tribes for marrying non-natives. Professional researchers are swamped trying to help those with native blood establish their roots and their legitimacy, which can be a valuable first step in gaining housing or other benefits from band councils or recent land-claim settlements.

A researcher has to be prepared for whatever they find in family history. As the old joke among genealogists goes: "I'll give you $50 to look up my family tree, and $500 to hush it up."

Race has long been a factor in genealogy searches. Available written records were mostly of the white European races, but that is changing. The Church has microfilmed records from 105 countries including the Philippines and Sri Lanka, where Church technicians stepped in when it was discovered that decay threatened to destroy the vital statistics of birth, marriage and death.

Groups such as African and Native Americans, who descended from tribal societies without written records, the search can be difficult. However fortunately, some of these nationalities, such as the Chinese and Koreans, have their lineage embedded in their names. Individuals can trace their family tree back hundreds of years by the use of time-honored words and knowledge of the ancestral home.

Still, for some who descended from North American black slaves, the search is particularly arduous. Tracing is hampered by the haphazard way surnames were chosen, not to mention the horrors of slavery itself, which was more akin to casual cattle breeding with no real vital statistics kept. Researchers in this area have to extract information from slave-owners diaries or shipís logs.

Obstacles such as these have spawned Genealogy Supply businesses, which distribute maps, charts, archival supplies, genealogy books, software, and CDs. Even governments have come to recognize the allure of cash-laden, roots-searching tourists. This fall, the University of Toronto is offering Canada's first full-certification program in genealogical studies for the growing number of professional family trackers.

The search for roots Maclean's, page 42 20Sep99 N6 By John Nicol Aided by technology, Canadians are scrambling to fill out their family trees

and

Building a family tree Maclean's, page 47 20Sep99 N6